So I've been working on my flexibility for the past few weeks by sitting in the full (ATG) squat position several times throughout the day. I've made some progress so I thought I'd give ATG Squats a try tonight since I've always just gone to parallel before.

It feels REALLY GOOD to go super deep like this!!!

I can totally see myself squatting like this from now on... My quads feel way more stimulated than usual. If I can get up to 225lbs doing ATGs I will be very happy.

Lunges almost killed me. I forgot how taxing high rep lunges and squats can be... My heart rate was just over 180 after the second and third sets. I really like using the BB for lunges when I'm compound/supersetting them with deadlifts because it gives my grip a chance to rest between deadlift sets. I can't always do this since my gym gets pretty busy at times, but it was pretty empty tonight so I took up two stations without anyone bothering me.

I was a little worried about how lifting would go after having a flu bug for 3 days, but I ended up having a great workout! It's been about 8 months since I've caught a cold or flu... Hopefully it will be another 8 months before I catch something again.

All my numbers are up as compared to last point in my workout cycle.

I did have a couple of good laughs at the gym tonite... When I went to do my preacher curls some guy had his sweatshirt hanging on the station, so I ask: "are you using the preacher curl station?" he responds "yes"...

The other station has a couple guys working on it, so I decide to wait for this one. A minute later, dude picks up the 70lb bar resting on the preacher curl station and starts doing standing curls!!! Oh yeah, you definitely need to use the preacher curl station to rest your gigantic 70lb bar between sets of STANDING CURLS!!! wtf???

When he set the bar back down, I immediately moved it back to the rack it came from (4 feet from the preacher station, I kid you not ) and let him know that "I'm going to go ahead and use the preacher station, since you're just putting your bar there between sets... "

The other funny thing I saw was this guy doing standing curls in the squat rack! It was especially funny given that his first working set involved the bar (45lbs) and he worked all the way up to 65lbs on his last set! In an ill equipped, or busy gym I might understand, but the rack with pre-loaded straight and EZ-Curl bars ranging from 20-90lbs in 5lb increments was not more than five feet from the squat rack!!! And none of them were being used!!!

I don't like to listen to music while I'm lifting since it interferes with my focus. As such, I consider myself lucky that there is abundant entertainment in the weight room to keep me laughing between sets...

I am continuing to experiment with my wide-squat form. Tonight I went wider than usual with my stance and took it just below parallel (not ATG, but somewhere in between). This is the widest I've ever squatted, and the squat rack at my gym has a "diamondplate" metal floor. I was very nervous about my foot/feet slipping on some sweat or something. I think the next time I do these I will use the other station that has a rubber floor...

After squats and lunges, I was ready to go home.

Seated leg-extension and ham-curls gave me a chance to catch my breath. I decided to do front squats for my second set of squats and they were really hard. I've only done these one other time, and they were pretty hard, but not as hard as doing them AFTER back squats and lunges! I only made 5 reps on the first set, so I dropped the weight a bit. Did these pretty fast and deep (almost ATG). Having that bar crushing your delts really motivates you to knock these out quick.

My numbers are up on just about everything else compared to the last time I was at this point in my cycle. I was squatting a little heavier last time around, but my stance was much narrower and I wasn't going nearly as deep as I am now.

A couple of weeks ago, I got sick for a couple days with the flu or something. Most of the symptoms went away, except for a little sore throat that continued to persist. I went back to training, since it wasn't that bad... Last Monday my throat started hurting pretty bad (hard to swallow food), so I stopped training. After three days of that, I decided to go see a doctor. I was diagnosed with a throat infection and prescribed antibiotics for ten days. Today is my fourth day of taking them, and my throat feels way better. Although my energy level isn't what it normally is, I decided to get back to the gym anyways.

Since I was basically just one week into my workout cycle, then took a whole week off as a result of the whole throat infection drama, I have decided to "re-start" it.

I was afraid I would be really weak on my lifts tonight, but I ended up doing pretty good. It felt really good to work out...

Was pretty strict with my rest periods, and the workout took 49 minutes to complete.

I guess there must be a flu bug going around because everyone I know has recently felt lousy, including people on this board. I myself wasn't feeling 100% for about a week. Glad to hear you're doing better.

The devotion of thought to an honest achievement makes the achievement possible.

hsorlando wrote:I guess there must be a flu bug going around because everyone I know has recently felt lousy, including people on this board. I myself wasn't feeling 100% for about a week. Glad to hear you're doing better.

Thanks, hsorlando.

My sister was rocked with whatever I had for over two weeks! Seems like everyone I know is getting sick... Being on antibiotics definitely makes me way less scared of their germs. lol

Had a pretty nice workout today. I thought I'd be weaker after a week off being sick, but I didn't drop weight on any of my excercises compared to last week.

I played with my angles on the lying DB tricep extension tonight. I mimicked the motion of doing cable pulldowns with a rope, and got some nice contractions. I usually do more of a linear movement, but I think this might work better for me.

Workout took 51 minutes to complete. I couldn't find my girlfriend when I finished lifting (went kinda early and the gym was REALLY busy) so I did a few sets of leg raises (four sets, 12-15 reps), figuring she'd turn up eventually... which she did.

This workout kicked my ass big time. I am definitely going to be paying for this for the next couple days.

Tonight was my second time doing ATG squats. Last time I bumped up to 195lbs on my last set. I knew my form would have suffered if I did that tonight, so not quite as heavy, but very good form.

Barbell lunges and Deadlifts were fun as always.

Pretty sure my heartrate was above 120 for the whole workout until I got to the calf press machine, at which point it came down a bit. I don't have a heartrate monitor, but I check it using the clock during rest periods. On leg days I usually wait for it to drop to 120 before starting my next set.